Clodagh Hawe’s eldest son Liam ‘put up a struggle’ with his father on the night they were killed, her sister has revealed.

The mother-of-three was killed along with her sons Liam, 14, Niall, 11, and Ryan, aged six, in their home in County Cavan on 29 August 2016 by her husband Alan.

Her mother Mary Coll and her sister Jacqueline have spoken out about the tragic loss a year after they died.

Pic: PA

Mary had called to the house after Clodagh and her two younger sons Niall and Ryan never showed up at her home.

After finding a note on the door which said ‘Don’t come in. Call the gardai’, Mary went to a neighbours house to call for help.

She said after gardai arrived they discovered Clodagh, still in her pyjamas, had been stabbed to death with a hatchet by her husband before he killed their sons and then took his own life.

Pic: GoFundMe

The three boys were found dead in their bedrooms, with Clodagh’s sister Jacqueline suggesting the eldest son, Liam, 14, had put up a fight against his father.

She explained that Ryan, the youngest, was in a room on his own, and his two older brothers were in the same room.

Jacqueline said she suspected Liam had been awake at some point during the attack as there was evidence of a ‘struggle’ between him and his father.


She also said that Niall must have witnessed his older brother being killed and that they didn’t know if the children had heard their mother as she died.

She told ‘Liam put up a struggle. We know that. Niall must have seen Liam being killed, and we don’t know if they heard Clodagh being killed.’

‘Ryan was on his own, though. He was a sound sleeper. We don’t know what he saw or heard,’ she said.

In a letter which Alan left behind, he detailed his wishes for Clodagh and their sons to be buried while his body would be cremated.


Clodagh’s family have said the killings were ‘planned’ by Alan after he transferred money from their joint account into his own, set out folders detailing their finances and laid out her jewellery on their bed.

Although Irish law stipulates the estate goes to Alan’s family, Clodagh’s family wish for the assets to be sold and the money to go to charity.

They have set up a charity called the Cavan Lighthouse in memory of Clodagh and her sons, as a family aid refuge.

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